‘Unmapping Territories’ - Master Non Linear Narrative x National Archives
Unmapping Territories
From March to November 2024 the Dutch National Archives (Nationaal Archief) in The Hague collaborated with students from the Master Non Linear Narrative at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) to explore the hidden stories behind twelve historical maps from its Navigation and Overseas Expansion collection. The goal of the partnership was to introduce students to the archive as a site of research and counterresearch as well as to scrutinise maps as documents of spatial representation that display magnitudes of centralised power. The project invited a new generation of designers to discover, analyse, and question map-making as an objective, neutral process.
Etymologically speaking, the word cartography means scraping, scratching, carving or writing the earth. Like any form of writing which is subject to experience, sensation, and culture, a map is not an objective representation of physical space but rather a demonstration of one’s experience and point of view. It is of fundamental relevance that, in a world dominated by maps, graphs, symbols, or diagrams, society learns to decipher the stories inscribed within maps and identify the narratives that are overlooked and deliberately ignored.
Maps and drawings, particularly those made during the seventeenth- to eighteenth-century colonial period, are part of the collection at the National Archives. Many of these tools of navigation were created by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) or the West India Company (WIC) and used for long voyages, identifying trade routes and establishing commercial outputs, but also warfare, territorial appropriation, political demarcation, and assertions of power. These maps became vital tools for administering, marginalising, and exploiting former colonies.
Through approaching the maps from a twenty-first-century context, students pursued a personal path of research and inquiry, using the available archival resources. Their analysis allowed mapping methods to meet new forms of countermapping, revealing underexposed stories, disrupted images and long-forgotten recordings that provided frightening insight into the hierarchical systems of colonial fictions. The idea was not to compile narratives that prove what is already known, but to reveal hidden or little-known histories, and how they are intertwined with present-day reality.
During an introduction to the vast cartographic collection, students had the opportunity to meet in-house experts, researchers, and conservators and become familiar with the depot and restoration workshops. In the course of the semester and in collaboration with -1 Digital Lab at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the Master Non Linear Narrative organised a comprehensive Knowledge Day to present cartographic, archival, and artistic counter-practices of map-making and discuss the social and ethical implications of administrative record-keeping.
The Knowledge Day demonstrated a historical interrogation into the violence behind cartography as a direct process of world-making, and counter-mapping and artistic practice as re-storying methodologies that allow for communal resistance and the decentring of dominant colonial forces. The first session Counter Archiving and Historical Record-Keeping included keynote speakers Delany Boutkan, researcher at the Nieuwe Instituut, and Michael Karabinos, archival theorist at the University of Amsterdam. The subsequent discussion Counter-Narration, Geo-Location and the Law was led by Annique Mossou, trainer and researcher at Bellingcat, and attorney / artist Lily Abichahine. The day was completed with a third session Lived Memory and the Embodied Story during which Caribbean artists Avantia Damberg, Ryan Oduber,
and Alydia Wever shared insights into their practices and the challenges they face. The entire day provided new perspectives and interventions for the students, paving the way for the decolonising of maps as a process that addresses biases, inaccuracies, and colonial perspectives.
The exhibition Archival F(r)ictions opened on 9 November 2024 and brought together thoughtful narratives exploring topics like the colonial plant trade, the blank spaces in cartography, the provision grounds of plantations, the oral histories of indigenous cultures, the songs of ancestral sorrow, the deterioration of archival material, the concept of an ‘amphibious’ archive, the history of the limbo dance, the fear of getting lost, the legacies of corporate colonialism, and feminist spatial practice as social and spatial justice. It would be an incredible achievement of the collaboration if this list of topics serves as a starting point for future research at the National Archives. If through the intervention we can see that the colonial past creates the colonial present, we hope the work starts a process in which decolonising the present begins the decolonial future.
Niels Schrader
Victoria McKenzie
Opening of Archival F(r)ictions on Saturday, 9 November 2024.
Panel talk about the relevance of establishing open archiving practices and challenging contemporary memory institutions.
Project
Students discovering the biographies of historical figures.
Tour through the Who Am I Who Were You? exhibition by Zion Piggott.
Using flashlights to illuminate the dark corners of history.
Time, place and circumstances of birth influence the life opportunities of people.
Peek into the National Archives’ depot of maps.
Students exploring the maps collection.
Where do you want to go today?
Introduction by Gijs Boink, conservator at the National Archives.
Looking at severe bookworm damage.
Presentation at the restoration workshop by Femke Prinsen.
Investigating paper and ink degradation using microscopy.
Samples of restored documents and manuscripts.
Restoration expert Aafke Weller explaining the composition of medieval inks.
In search of watermarks in paper.
In the Middle Ages, feather quill pens were the primary writing tools.
Writing sample with a quill pen.
Farilyann Muzo highlights details in a map of the Banda Islands in Indonesia.
Students looking at a map from Suriname, including names of plantations.
Zion Piggott gives context to the Navigation and Overseas Expansion collection.
Nick Ceton, programme manager at the National Archives.
Learning from Friction
The National Archives houses a vast collection, with nearly a thousand years of Dutch history stored in 142 kilometres of documents and 800 terabytes of digital files. Since their foundation in 1802, the National Archives have included maps, ships’ logs and drawings in their Navigation and Overseas Expansion collection. Many of these documents were created by colonial trading companies, namely, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the West India Company (WIC).
Together with researchers, educators, archivists, and restoration experts, students in the Master Non Linear Narrative (NLN) explored the hidden stories behind twelve Dutch colonial maps. This research culminated in the exhibition Archival F(r)ictions from 9 to 14 November 2025, in which the NLN students challenged map-making as an objective process.
In April 2025, journalist Sarah van Binsbergen sat down with Nick Ceton (Programme Manager, National Archives) and Saskia Oranje (former Head of Exhibitions and Education, National Archives); students Laura Flethe, Martin Escalante, and Stefano Cattani; and Niels Schrader (Head of Programme, Master Non Linear Narrative) to discuss what all parties learned from this collaboration.
What prompted you to focus on colonial maps?
Niels Our initial idea was to work with the War in Court (Oorlog voor de Rechter) archive related to World War II, because we knew that in the beginning of 2025 a lot of new data within those archives would be released. Upon closer inspection, however, we realised that this data was too complex to work with: firstly, most of the data is in Dutch, and secondly, it marks the first time sensitive information about people
suspected of collaborating with the Nazi regime has become publicly accessible. This would not have been safe for students to engage with.
We shifted the focus to colonial maps because they are visual documents, so the language barrier would not be an issue. Furthermore, we thought colonial history would be a relevant topic for students to engage with, especially in order to understand its entanglement with capitalism and how its consequences still affect us today.
Can you tell me a little bit about the brief that was given to students, and how you kicked off the project?
Nick As a starting point, there were about twelve maps that we selected from the archives. The brief was very open, the assignment was simply to engage with these maps. The only limitations were practical ones concerning the final presentation. The exhibition would take place in a public room, an information centre in the archives. People come there to read, and there’s limited space, so in their final presentations students should take this into account.
Laura Initially the idea was that each student would pick a map to work with, but in the end the approach was to work with the maps a bit more freely, with the option to just use them as a starting point for the research. For example, I ended up looking more at maps of The Hague that had similar aesthetics but allowed for a more local perspective.
Niels Ultimately, we also had to let go of our initial idea to have the twelve maps from the archive on display in the exhibition, next to the student works. During class, this was a very delicate topic, because the maps are of course testament to a lot of violence. So, in the end we decided together it was better not to include them. In that sense it was a good learning experience in how to confront sensitive histories and not shy away from difficult topics.
Saskia At the first meeting, two education officers from the National Archives looked at the maps together with the students. It was important to involve them in this process, because of the sensitive nature of the topic and the emotions and anxieties it could evoke. These maps are not merely means of navigation, they are means of power and documents of a violent history. For instance, the WIC, active in Suriname and the Antilles, used the maps to show the Dutch who paid for enslaved people. So there are different ways to look at these maps, and these different perspectives elicit different feelings. Our educators are very experienced in dealing with these situations. Students could also meet with them one-on-one to discuss their own projects. This was very helpful I believe.
What was an important learning moment for you as students in this project?
Stefano The Knowledge Day at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam was very inspiring. The department invited different professionals, for example, researchers from the archival team of the Nieuwe Instituut, scholars and other researchers, and artists who work with archives. There were talks that, from different perspectives, reflected on what it means to work with archives.
Laura I was really inspired by Alydia Wever and Ryan Oduber’s talk. They are two Caribbean artists who work with performance and spoke about starting from their personal experience in dealing with colonial history and the role of emotions in this process. What resonated for me was how they talked about reclaiming a certain space and really understanding through the body. I saw this as an invitation to deal with emotions and to try to work through metaphors and not consciously unveiling everything but rather rereading what is written in the maps.
How do you look back on the exhibition?
Nick I was impressed with the quality and pleasantly surprised by the diversity of media and interpretations. It was a tight schedule at the end, but the presentation looked very good. I think one of the things that we learned at the archives is that next time, if we engage in a project like this, we should get more people involved internally. It would have been helpful, for instance, to have more help with communication for the exhibition.
Martin I was very happy with it. I think as Nick mentioned, it would have been nice if we had been able to do more outreach, to invite more people. But I’m also happy with how we as a group were able to realise all these projects and bring them together in this exhibition, which I think came out very well.
Laura I especially liked the opening and activation moments that we had. We had a panel discussion and performances and workshop moments to bring the exhibition to life and engage with people.
Stefano I really liked it, and I strongly agree on what Martin said about the last part of the production. It would have been nice if we could, from both sides, have managed things differently to reach more people, have more engagement with the external world.
What would you say was the most valuable thing to come out of this collaboration for you, Nick and Saskia, as representatives of the National Archives?
Nick The most valuable thing for me is that it contributed to the discussions I think we should be having at the archives. We know by now that the archive is not neutral, that it often presents just one side of history and leaves out all these other perspectives. We are still searching for ways to deal with the implications of that. It was inspiring to see how artists brought
these new layers and voices and perspectives to these maps. The project showed us one way of doing this.
Saskia The project also helped us to communicate the added value of these new perspectives and narratives to our colleagues in the archives. This is not always easy, as the main task of an archivist is, of course, to protect documents for the ages. To sit on the archive so to speak.
From your answers, it sounds like there was friction between protecting history as it is documented – which is onesided and reflects historical power imbalances – and using the documents as a starting point to uncover untold stories.
Saskia Yes, absolutely. I have to say the students are mainly the ones who experienced that friction, which is also why we really wanted to have the educators involved. They have experience in navigating these tensions. There are colleagues, archivists, who have worked at the archives for thirty, maybe forty years. They are specialists in their field, they know a lot, and they know how things have always been done. This clashes sometimes with the need to, as Nick says, open up. We must find ways to connect with people who still live with the consequences of that history. Like, in this case, people with Surinamese and Antillean roots. So, it was helpful to have this beautiful exhibition, which was of very high quality in terms of content, technique, and experience, as a means of communication. Through this exhibition we were able to show to our colleagues what the archive could be, what other perspectives and narratives it could unlock.
Martin, Stefano, and Laura, how was this for you as students to navigate?
Martin The friction in working with these documents was for me mainly about how to position myself, how I engage with this history, from what perspective. I worked with a
Surinamese map, but I’m neither Surinamese nor Dutch. Who am I to say anything about this history? An important takeaway for me was that maybe through looking at other histories, legacies, and community stories, I can also begin to understand my own history. I come from Peru, where we also have to grapple with colonial history, not with the Dutch, but there are similar dynamics of power and violence.
Stefano I think the whole experience was quite a pressure cooker for us. We are a group of international students, so we come from a different background, and we felt a lot of responsibility in working with these materials that contain so much violence and so much of the Dutch colonial past that we don’t know so much about. That was the biggest challenge, and perhaps also the biggest learning curve: going into an institution, and understanding how you can navigate it, what questions you can pose.
And what was the most valuable thing about this project for you, as students?
Stefano The greatest benefit from this experience was I think the aspect of working with an assignment, as a kind of commission. Because of the structure of this collaboration, it really challenged us to move outside of the school, outside of our own studios and practices, and engage with the world outside. This confronted us with all of these questions. For instance: How can you translate what you like to do and what is meaningful for you, into something that is meaningful for others? How do you position yourself in relation to this institution? What are the questions that you can pose?
Laura For me what is valuable is the possibility of working with such a big institution, in a space that still feels kind of held. You’re still in the context of a class and a school; it is still a learning environment. That felt like a good setting to learn also about the dynamics that are present in these environments
and navigating those frictions that come up and searching for the conversations to hold those frictions.
Do you see yourself working in this way with archives or other institutions after graduation?
Martin I do. I really liked the experience of exploring material that otherwise would remain unread. There are kilometres of archives in that building, most of that data is not activated or disclosed. I think it’s interesting to find ways to unfold those stories and bring new perspectives to them.
Stefano I would like to incorporate this in my practice and mix it with other things. I really believe in not fully being immersed in one unique bubble. Keeping my feet in different worlds would be nice – being a bit inside and a bit outside is interesting.
Laura I found a bit of a backdoor in this collaboration, because my work is very situated and experience-based. The maps were my starting point, and my focus was more the people in the archives and their experiences. I could see myself working in this way in the future, with an institution and facilitating spaces for conversations, and linking that to my own practice.
What aspect of this experience will you take with you in your practice?
Nick One of the things the project really brought home for me is that archival documents are objects of emotion just as much as they are objects of information. We see it now, for instance, in the War in Court archive. People are coming to us and asking for a specific document. This document is not neutral. They are looking for something personal and there is a lot of emotion behind that need. We underestimate that. This project and the conversations around it helped to bring these concerns more into focus.
Saskia My experience was very personal. I’ve been an exhibition maker for over thirty years. I’ve worked in several museums and design offices. Meeting these students and engaging with their new ways of thinking made me realise how important it is to bring a younger perspective into the archives. I think my experience is very valuable, but at this moment a fresh, younger perspective is more urgent. I decided to make place for a younger generation, and I changed jobs. I still work in the archives, but I’m not head of the exhibition department anymore. I’m now a community manager; we’re still finding out what that means. This career change is the direct result of this collaboration. It confirmed my own move towards something else, and to leave working with the archives and exhibitions, and education, to the younger generation. Because they are the future.
Laura It was really powerful to see that we left traces in the archive, that we stirred things up a bit. We didn’t do this alone of course. In a way we supported the education team who were already trying to do push for change. This is one of the things I take away from this experience: that as an artist you have the possibility to intervene a bit and to bring these new perspectives.
Martin I agree. Especially listening to Nick and Saskia, how they engage with this interview. I think it’s very nice to hear that there’s this impact beyond the tangible exhibition that came out of this collaboration, and that our work and the conversations around it have rippled into the structure a bit.
Stefano What I take away from this project is the need to be very honest about expectations and limitations. When you approach a big project like this, you set your expectations at a certain level, but then, navigating the collaboration with an institution, you understand that there are so many other factors that come into play that pose limitations. And that
might sound like a failure, but it’s not. It’s about negotiating the terms, and within this structure, seeing what is the most honest thing you can do.
In the spirit of honesty, were there any other things in how the project was set up that could have been improved on? Any points of critique maybe?
Martin I think perhaps the expectations from both sides could have been made more explicit in the beginning: to understand what the scope of the collaboration was, what the assignment really was. That could have helped us as students to narrow things down, and to have a better timeline.
Laura Saskia mentioned that the next time the archives would have a specific team assigned to the collaboration. This would be very good, because we found the educational team and especially Zion Piggott very helpful, but their engagement wasn’t really planned. They were getting involved on their own time, which put a lot of pressure on them. I think next time having a proper team that will work more closely together with us would be nice.
Would you recommend NLN engage in a collaboration like this again?
Stefano Yes, provided tools for the students to deal with a project like this on a mental level are made available. The topic was quite challenging and stressful. And with a better production structure from the department and from the archive, as was already mentioned.
Laura Would I recommend doing this again? Yes and no. Yes, because it was a very valuable experience, and no because at times the frictions in this process took quite a big toll on our group dynamics as a class. It could be quite exhausting. As Stefano said, I think we would have needed some kind of structure of care to deal with that.
Martin For sure I would recommend doing it again. If we are working with a big institution like the National Archives, it might be interesting to also look at the other end of the spectrum and engage with a kind of ‘counterinstitution’. In this project that could’ve been, for instance, an anti-mapping grassroots community.
Stefano and Laura, you mentioned it would have been helpful to have a structure of care to support students in navigating a project like this. What could that have looked like?
Stefano I think it could have been a mix of different things: tutoring, but also more support on the production side. And being clearer from the start about expectations. We’re saying this after the fact, of course, looking back. There was no blueprint for this project, because we were finding out the terms of this collaboration while it unfolded, in a way. But perhaps this experience could also be a blueprint for us, when we engage in such a collaboration again.
Juliana Acero Castellanos
Becoming La Llorona – Healing the Colonial Wound Through Crying navigates the borderlands of emotion, ancestral memory, and resistances that arise through the encounter with the persistent colonial gaze that inhabits the National Archives. Through her own personal journey and embodiment, Juliana Acero Castellanos questions: what is transformed in ethics and care with the expression of emotion amongst institutional walls? Can the embodiment of such emotions act as protest, demanding a different way of holding memories and telling stories through maps, documents and their own display?
Becoming La Llorona uses the power of mythology in telling the story of the Latin American legend of La Llorona, a woman of sorrow who predicts the destruction of the descendants of her territory. She roams the forests, walks alongside rivers, and cries for the stories we have yet to heal, reminding us that her sorrows are an open wound, an ancient pain.
Acero Castellanos’s performance and installation invites us to weep within the archive, as an act of protest, as a mourning ritual: to symbolically drown the documents protected here, along with the narratives they continue to uphold. Through the ritual of mourning, the performance asks how societies can migrate into the future as descendants of liberated territories.
The text Healing the Wound is a recital through which Acero Castellanos demands for the National Archives, and those who work within it, to alter their narratives and the experiences that emerge from them. Failing to do so keeps the archive as a colonial space, replicating old power structures.
Becoming La Llorona –
Healing the Colonial Wound Through Crying
Rodrigo Cardoso
In the National Archive, one can find documentation of the Dutch colonial coffee trade in the then Dutch-controlled island of Java. The Coffea arabica plant was taken by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) from the port city of Mocha, Yemen, to be forcefully planted in Java, giving European colonial powers a way into the coffee trade.
One of the world’s most successful plantations, coffee gets transported from the tropical highlands to the higher latitudes at great environmental cost only to be soaked in water and then discarded. Its growth relies largely on precarious workers in the Global South.
From its sacred origin – coffee was first used by Yemenite Sufis as an aid for concentration during religious worship –it became synonymous with productivity, caffeine becoming the daily fuel for the workers of modern businesses.
However, coffee has been and still is a tool for powerful social bonds. In early modern Europe, coffee houses were rare spaces where people across different social classes could meet and discuss politics, even becoming outlawed in places where they threatened institutional power. Many cultures around the world, especially those who grow coffee, have developed their own socially focused rituals around it.
Reflective Coffee Corner by Rodrigo Cardoso aimes to create a space where coffee can be reclaimed not as yet another quick fix for productivity, but as an opportunity to gather around and share stories, sparking critical conversations about our relationship with the beverage. The room hosts also a video piece and an accompanying essay retelling the colonial history of coffee from a first-person point-of-view.
Stefano Cattani
Reflecting on norms, space, and identity, Stefano Cattanis performance act and sonic experience explores the process of getting lost as both a practical and metaphorical space for identity making. It frames the concept of ‘getting lost’ within the context of queerness and queer theory.
Cattani departs from research that connects queer experiences of space with ancient fugitive attempts in the Suriname forest. The Narrative of Getting Lost: Finding Possibilities for the Self examines Western colonial methods of mapping and seeks alternatives in non-hegemonic practices of orientation.
The work is grounded in personal memories and conversations with other queer beings about loss and presence, space and identity. It is a narrative that imagines possible answers to the question, how do people find their way through a space that was not designed for them? Prompting a critical examination of conventional Western perceptions of space, confronting their colonial violence, possibilities outside these structures, that embrace the multitudes of the self, might be found.
Composition, sound design and mixing: RadVlad Multimedia
The Narrative of Getting Lost: Finding Possibilities
for the Self
Stefano Dealessandri
Accidentally left behind in the foyer of the National Archives in The Hague, Under Revision is Stefano Dealessandri’s draft for a soon-to-be-published collection of keynote presentations from the symposium Now for the Future: Nationaal Archief 2100 held at the archives on 22 March 2024. The symposium explored the Netherlands’s ongoing shift towards climate resilience, envisioning a future where the country collaborates with water rather than resists it. Drawing from historical records of land reclamation, the event examined early cartographic efforts to map wetlands, often revealing how these landscapes were misunderstood and devalued. By rethinking wetlands as vital ecosystems in the face of rising sea levels and land subsidence, the symposium sought to out how these landscapes might be reintegrated into the nation’s future. At the core of this discussion was the concept of an ‘amphibious archive’ – a new archival model that reflects the changing relationship between land, water, and an uncertain future.
Curiously, no records confirm that this symposium ever took place. While Under Revision draws on authentic archival materials, academic research, and government documents, the narrative it presents – an amphibious reimagining of the national archive – remains speculative. The project assembles a revision of the archive’s structure and collections, with a focus on wetlands and their reintegration into the country’s future, subtly suggesting their imminent ‘leak’ into reality.
The draft, as an incomplete and in-progress form, along with the absence of the spoken component of these keynotes, introduces intentional gaps, uncertainties, and ambiguities.
Carmen Draxler
Mother-of-Oil is a research project by Carmen Draxler that traces the colonial roots of the Dutch-British oil company Shell. By following the stories of seashells from Indonesia, the installation displays a relational map of archival material that reveals Shell’s entanglement with the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
Like tulips, seashells were highly coveted commodities in the 17th century that captivated many wealthy Europeans and became a symbol of power and prestige – a symbol that is now the logo of the global oil empire Shell. Before extracting oil, Shell’s predecessors sold trinket boxes adorned with seashells from the Indo-Pacific. By reimagining a seashell box as carrier bag for displaced landscapes and distorted images, Mother-of-Oil seeks to disrupt colonial narratives and highlight how the commodification of marine life became a template for fossil capitalism.
Audiences were invited to engage with the archival material and listen to the stories of oil and shells. The installation was activated in the form of a lecture performance.
Gjorgji Despodov
Echoes of Growth by Gjorgji Despodov is a proposal for a self-sustaining ecosystem that delves into the successes and failures of artificial systems aimed at sustaining life. The installation consists of two fictional plants, reflecting on the role of human imagination alongside the creativity and growth processes of these organisms. These 3D-printed plants draw inspiration from the growth structures of root vegetables, which constantly adapt to their surroundings responding to sunlight, air, and even altering the bodies of those who consume them.
The 3D-printed sculptures are visions of new plant forms, entities, and alliances that could arise in a post-natural future, a blend of natural and human-made ecosystems that goes beyond the conventional nature. In the installation there are two layers, reflecting the Javanese belief that the land consists of two layers. The first layer, known as the wadhag layer (the layer with moss in the installation), represents the common ground. The second layer symbolizes the cosmos (transparent layer with engraved graphics), indicating that the land holds spiritual insights. According to Javanese beliefs, the cosmic layer is inhabited by the forces of the universe, which are controlled by the goddess Dewi Sri.
Echoes of Growth – Dialogue Between Material Ecosystems and Cosmic Beliefs
Martin Escalante Robles
Beyond Violence – To Fail Cartography by Becoming Illegible departs from the ‘General Map of the Province of Suriname’ (1784), which depicts the horror of Dutch colonizers in this territory. The genocide displaced communities from their homeland and allowed for the exploitation and occupation of those lands. To acknowledge this horror is also to recognize the horror vacui present in cartography, which is the aversion and fear to leave an empty space on a map, perhaps a space to imagine otherwise, a space where you can escape the violence.
Martin Escalante tries to think of the beyond of violence, to analyse how contemporary mapping interacts with these lands now. Showing Suriname with Google Street View reveals a territory that is still not so accessible by mapping. Could that be a resistance? Only a few images are available, and people are distorted and digitally severed into illegible bodies. This glitch allows for new narratives of interpretation. Jack Halberstam uses failing as a proposal to recover other, queer ways of being; ‘mapping failure’ might then propose being illegible as a way of escaping modernity.
This project gathers a selection of images where illegible bodies are proof of the perks of failing cartography. It shows a virtual space that is highly saturated by digitally generated blends, repetition and nature, limbs and unknown figures. It is a glitched landscape for a testimony of resistance.
Beyond Violence –To Fail
Cartography by Becoming Illegible
Laura Flethe
mapping otherwise by Laura Flethe investigates the colonial roots of cartography and contemporary mapmaking practices. Drawing on feminist and decolonial spatial theory and carrying out field research in the form of workshops, the project explores how these historical documents remain entangled with our present.
Modern cartography builds on colonial methods and aesthetics, abstracting and dividing land into empty squares and borders. Maps have always been an apparatus, not only of navigation, but also of oppression and violence. mapping otherwise takes to task the notion that mapmaking is objective and neutral. Instead, it recognizes maps as subjective and political documents, that shape perception and navigation. By observing characteristics, powers and worldviews embedded in maps, this project seeks to understand and reverse these tools by looking into alternative cartographies in collective mapping gatherings.
Three workshops took place between March and May 2024 in the area called Koekamp in The Hague. The experiments centred around the individual perspective as compass, while mapping sounds, movements, encounters, and imaginations on paper, in conversation or in the body. In October and November 2024, workshops at the National Archives focused on sensing and documenting the memories, encounters and emotions carried by the walls of the space, mapping comfort and discomfort, while occupying the archive with living and moving bodies.
mapping otherwise moves towards cartographies that resist modern colonial ways of containing the animate world, forming a growing collection of embodied, imaginative, and experience-based maps, documented in (un)readable ways.
Rita Horta Correia Figueiredo Gaspar
Accessing the collection of historical maps in the National Archives in The Hague is an arduous task. Hidden behind locked doors, staircases and several permission requests, these documents lie face down in specially designed drawers, in a dark room at a constant, low temperature. Following archival preservation guidelines, the institution keeps the optimal conditions to avoid the documents’ material decay. But what immaterial stories are being protected? Whose narrative is being preserved?
One of the drawers in this cold dark environment contains a map of Suriname from 1780, depicting the route to find the communities of enslaved people who escaped from the colonial plantations. Analysing this document might feel like a journey back in time, but the colonial gaze that justified this violent persecution is still perpetuated today. How is it still shaping our perception of those who are fleeing violence now? Instead of trying to look for those who are trying to escape from sight, can we hear their stories of resistance? By bringing that drawer up the stairs and out the doors, Undergoing Discomfort – A
Search for Routes to
Escape the Colonial Gaze by Rita Horta Correia Figueiredo Gaspar intends to shed light on these colonial stories and ask: which narratives and words need to be left to decay? And where do we position ourselves in this process? It leaves an invitation to move with and through the discomfort of facing the coloniality of the past and the present. The invitation is to embody a humbling position, to crouch, to crawl, to lie down. The proposal is for a change of perspective: going under to escape the usual cartographic look from above, to search for escape routes without wanting to map or control them.
Undergoing Discomfort –
A Search for Routes to Escape the Colonial Gaze
Ieva Jakuša
In Limbo – Colonial Imprint in Tobago juxtaposes the complex history of limbo, a dance originating from 19th-century Tobago, against its contemporary appropriation as a party dance in the West. Rooted in resistance, limbo emerged as a cultural expression among enslaved people of African descent. The dancers move under a pole that is gradually lowered. As they emerge on the other side, they celebrate the triumph of life over death – a metaphor for resilience and survival amid oppression. Others have interpreted the movement as symbolizing enslaved people entering the galleys of a slave ship.
Examining the colonial powers that had brought the kidnapped people onto the ships, Jakusa’s research is seated in a 16th / 17th-century map of Tobago sourced from the Dutch National Archive. This map highlights the exploitation of the territory by the Dutch and Courland (now part of Latvia) when Tobago became a site of brutal forced labour. Amid the abolition of slavery and the decolonization of territories, a broader Western trend emerged in the 20th century to reclaim the narrative of the ‘lost colony’ by creating and consuming ‘tropical’ pop culture.
This installation encourages viewers to reflect on how colonial histories continue to shape present-day realities, an exploration that has led the artist to critically examine their own country’s (Latvia’s) historical ties to Tobago. These connections often romanticized while the exploitative aspects remain unaddressed. By using the limbo dance as a central metaphor of resilience and trauma, the work highlights the persistent echoes of colonialism in cultural narratives and social structures.
In
Limbo
–
Imprint in Tobago
Julia Löffler
A Wardian case is a house-shaped box made of wood and glass, revolutionized the global transportation of plants in the 19th century. Originally developed for transporting tropical plants from colonies to Europe, it illustrates how the colonial plant trade intertwines with the contemporary availability and perception of tropical flora. When comparing the architectural developments – from the wooden box to glass showcases and from portable cases to majestic conservatories or entire greenhouse complexes – it becomes evident that today’s trends in plant cultivation are entrenched in the colonial plant trade.
In Framing Paradise – The Colonial Roots of Botanical Beauty Julia Löffler explores the intersection of history, politics, and design through the lens of tropical plants, tracing their journey from colonial-era luxuries to modern interior staples. The narrative unfolds nonlinearly, inviting readers to consider global trade and colonialism have shaped the world of botany, from 19th-century greenhouses to today’s thriving indoor plant market.
By looking beyond the mere aesthetic appeal of exotic plants, this work reveals the complex web of historical exploitation and ongoing environmental, economic, and sociopolitical implications, challenging readers to question the tropical greenery adorning their homes – what legacies are they really nurturing? The project also touches on the sociocultural fascination with exotic plants, tracing the evolution of orangeries and conservatories in Europe, where botanical beauty became a symbol of wealth and status. These spaces, designed to house non-native species, reflect the colonial impulse to collect and display botanical specimens, reinforcing the idea that botanical beauty and economic exploitation were often intertwined.
Framing Paradise
The Colonial Roots of Botanical Beauty
Knowledge Day at Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
Welcome at Nieuwe Instituut by host Ramon Amaro.
Michael Karabinos, archival theorist at the University of Amsterdam.
Introduction to the Collecting Otherwise initiative by
Co-moderator Victoria McKenzie.
Delany Boutkan.
Annique Mossou, trainer and researcher at Bellingcat on counter-mapping.
Lily Abichahine, attorney and artist speaking.
Mossou explaining image analysis tools.
Abichahine responding to questions from the audience
Ryan Oduber, Caribbean artist, giving testimony from his lived experiences.
Alydia Wever, who collaborates with Ryan, gives insight into her artistic practice.
Wever and Oduber present their installation Dilanti di Biento.
Avantia Damberg, artist form Curaçao, joins the conversation via Zoom.
Juliana Acero Castellanos (CO, she / her) is a communication designer, embodied storyteller, and practitioner with a deep conviction for social design. She is part of the TogetherTogether collective and also a student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Ramon Amaro (US, he / him) is an engineer, researcher, writer, tutor in Critical Theory and Methods at the MA Non Linear Narrative, and host of the Unmapping Territories Knowledge Day.
Rodrigo Cardoso (PT, he / him) is a digital designer and motion graphics expert, and student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Stefano Cattani (IT, he / him / she / her) is a research-based visual and performance artist whose work is rooted in queerness, investigating the intersection of body, identity and space, and student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Nick Ceton (NL, he / him) is Programme Manager at the National Archives, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
Stefano Dealessandri (IT, he / him) is a research-led designer, and student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Gjorgji Despodov (BG / MK, he / him) is a multidisciplinary artist who works with virtual and augmented reality concepts, and student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Linda van Deursen (NL, she / her) is a graphic designer and former partner at Mevis & Van Deursen, tutor in Image Language at the MA Non Linear Narrative, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
Incisu Dilem Üzüm-Veldhuizen (TR, she / her) is Senior Project Manager at the National Archives, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
Carmen Draxler (DE, she / her) is a designer and visual researcher who is concerned with climate justice and collective repair. She is also a student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Martin Escalante Robles (PE, he / him) is a visual designer, researcher, collaborator at the Lectorate Film, and student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Laura Flethe (DE, they / them) is a visual and embodied researcher whose participatory artistic practice explores the entanglement of gender, language, and the body. They are part of the TogetherTogether collective and also student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Rita Horta Correia Figueiredo Gaspar (PT, she / her) works at the intersection of design, storytelling, and activism, bridging these practices through embodied research on resistance, collectivity, care, and borders. She is also a student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Ieva Jakuša (LV, she / her) is a multimedia artist whose work delves into the roots of traditional culture and its relevance in contemporary society, and student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Floris Janssens-Andrejew (NL, he / him) is Digital Information Management Advisor at the National Archives, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
Julia Löffler (DE, she / her) is a communication designer, and student participant of the Unmapping Territories project.
Victoria McKenzie (JM / TT, she / her) is a research architect and movement artist, visiting tutor in Critical Theory and Methods at the MA Non Linear Narrative, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
Saskia Oranje (NL, she / her) is Relationship Manager at the National Archives, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
Zion Piggott (CW, he / him) is an archive guide and Education Officer at the National Archives, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
belit sağ (TR, she / her / they / them) is a videomaker and visual artist, tutor in Media Theory at the MA Non Linear Narrative, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
Niels Schrader (VE / DE, he / him) is an information designer and educator, founder of Mind Design, Head of Programme at the MA Non Linear Narrative, and supervisor of the Unmapping Territories project.
Unmapping Territories was an educational project between the Master Non Linear Narrative program at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and the Dutch National Archives (Nationaal Archief), The Hague, lasting from March to November 2024.
The project was generously funded by the National Archives, The Hague.
Initiative
Nick Ceton (Programme Manager, National Archives) and Niels Schrader (Head of Programme, MA Non Linear Narrative)
Student participants
Juliana Acero Castellanos, Rodrigo Cardoso, Stefano Cattani, Stefano Dealessandri, Gjorgji Despodov, Carmen Draxler, Martin Escalante Robles, Laura Flethe, Rita Horta Correia Figueiredo Gaspar, Ieva Jakuša, and Julia Löffler
Project supervision, KABK
Linda van Deursen, Victoria McKenzie, belit sağ, and Niels Schrader
Project supervision, National Archives
Nick Ceton, Floris Janssens-Andrejew, Saskia Oranje, Zion Piggott, and Marjon van Walbeek
Photography
Roel Backaert
Knowledge Day
Moderation
Ramon Amaro, Victoria McKenzie, and Niels Schrader
Speakers
Lily Abichahine, Delany Boutkan (Nieuwe Instituut), Avantia Damberg, Michael Karabinos (University of Amsterdam), Annique Mossou (Bellingcat), Ryan Oduber, and Alydia Wever
Exhibition
Production
Julius Dusch (KABK), Suraya Latul (KABK), and Incisu Dilem ÜzümVeldhuizen (National Archives)
Exhibition design
Shapeshifters and Spacebenders
Moderation panel talk
Setareh Noorani
Communication
Shirley Copijn (National Archives), Carmen Draxler (KABK), Ieva Jakuša (KABK), and Julia Löffler (KABK)
Graphic design
Juliana Acero Castellanos, Gjorgji Despodov, and Martin Escalante Robles
Events
Stefano Cattani, Laura Flethe, Martin Escalante Robles, and Rita Horta Correia Figueiredo Gaspar
Technical assistance
Rodrigo Cardoso, and Laura Flethe
Transport
Trijntje Noske
Catering
Stefano Dealessandri, Ieva Jakuša, and Julia Löffler in collaboration with the National Archives
Publication
Main editor
Niels Schrader
Interview
Sarah van Binsbergen
Copy editing
Janine Armin
Design
Mind Design, Amsterdam
Cover design
Juliana Acero Castellanos
Printing
Robstolk®, Amsterdam
Binding
Voetelink Grafische Afwerking, Haarlem
Paper
Maxioffset 90 gr
Print run
300
ISBN 978-90-72600-65-3
Special thanks to Arjan Agema, Lauren Alexander, Hans van den Akker, Jacqueline van As, Gijs Boink, Annet Dekker, Oliver Doe, Mijke van der Drift, Rana Ghavami, Lizzy Kok, Timothy Lieuw Kie Song, Sebastian Månsson, Farilyann Muzo, Nieuwe Instituut, Femke Prinsen, Miriam Suijkerbuijk, Thomas Tawanda Orbon, and Aafke Weller
